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Abel Maldonado
|birth_place=Santa Maria, California, U.S. |residence=Santa Maria, California, U.S. |profession=Farmer Politician |party=Republican |signature=Abel Maldonado Signature.jpg }} Abel Maldonado (born August 21, 1967) is an American politician who was the 48th Lieutenant Governor of California. On November 23, 2009, then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Maldonado as his nominee for Lieutenant Governor to fill the vacancy created by John Garamendi's election to the United States House of Representatives. A State Senator from 2004 until his appointment as Lieutenant Governor, Maldonado ran unsuccessfully for California State Controller in 2006. Maldonado was the first Republican in the State Senate to vote for the budget during the budget deadlock in 2007. He represented a swing district in the Senate and is considered a moderate.Representing His District: Abel Maldonado—The Only Republican Senator So Far to Vote for the California State Budget Prior to serving in the State Senate, Maldonado was a member of the California State Assembly and Mayor and City Councilmember of Santa Maria. Maldonado was defeated in the 2010 lieutenant governor election by Democrat Gavin Newsom of San Francisco. Early life, education, and farming career Maldonado is the eldest son of immigrant Mexican-American farm workers. His family eventually acquired a small family farm, where they grew strawberries. After Maldonado graduated from Santa Maria High School, his family used their earnings from the farm to send him to California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where he majored in Crop Science. Maldonado brought his college experience back to his family's farm and helped his family grow the half-acre strawberry farm into a 6,000-acre (24 km²) farm, employing 250 people, with produce shipped around the world. Santa Maria city politics After months of attempting to obtain a building permit from the City of Santa Maria to construct a cooling facility on the farm, Maldonado grew disillusioned with the city bureaucracy and decided to run for the Santa Maria City Council in 1994 at the age of 26. In 1996, at the age of 28, Councilman Maldonado successfully ran for mayor, defeating the incumbent Mayor Robert Gordon Bunch and retiree George Hobbs 40%-39%-21%, a margin of 70 votes.http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/co_city_sch_elections/city_report_1996.pdf California Assembly Elections In 1998, at the age of 31, Mayor Maldonado was elected to the California State Assembly with 60% of the vote in the 33rd District, representing San Luis Obispo County and western Santa Barbara County. Maldonado was re-elected in 2000 with 65% of the vote and in 2002 with 63% of the vote. Tenure During his Assembly tenure, Abel was named "Hero of the Taxpayer" by the Americans for tax reform. He led issues such as seat belts in school busses and California Workers Compensation Reform.http://www.abelmaldonado2010.com/index.cfm/biography.htm Committee assignments He was on the Business and Professions committee. California Senate Elections In 2004, Maldonado was elected to the California State Senate by a margin of 53% to 43% over his Democratic opponent, San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Peg Pinard, in a district evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. The 15th District spans San Luis Obispo County, most of Monterey County, eastern Santa Cruz County, portions of northwestern Santa Barbara County, and portions of southwestern Santa Clara County. Tenure In March 2005, a San Luis Obispo weekly newspaper revealed that Maldonado had received $30,987 in gifts from an organization representing California's power industry. Those gifts included multiple trips to Australia, Africa and Europe. The story suggested that the gifts might have motivated Maldonado to object to a seismic safety bill that could potentially have threatened Diablo Canyon Power Plant's license to operate. According to the story, Maldonado snapped at the reporter, "“I have never, ever, ever connected monetary resources with a bill or a special company in my area. For somebody to even suggest that is disappointing." Maldonado signed a "No New Taxes" pledge before his election which he later claimed to regret as he cast a vote for higher taxes. In February 2009, Maldonado was initially among the Republican senators rejecting a series of bills designed to close the $41 billion state budget deficit, but he later joined the Democrats in supporting the measures. A committee indicated that it might pursue a recall campaign against Maldonado because of his vote on the budget. The same threat was made against other Republicans in the "Sacramento Six", but none of the recall campaigns came to anything. (Most of the recall energy was directed against Anthony Adams.)[http://recallmaldonado.com/ Recall Maldonado] In response to his critics, including Steve Poizner, Maldonado said, "Since the budget was passed, you have gone around the state criticizing it and the role six Republicans played in its passage. Your recent statements condemning Propositions 1A-1F are very frustrating. During the budget debate, which lasted over 100 days, I heard from thousands of Californians who took the time to give me their input on the state budget. But I never heard from you."[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/01/BAQL16QHMF.DTL San Francisco Chronicle, "Maldonado rebukes Poizner on budget", April 1, 2009] Committee assignments In December 2006, he was named Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. *Budget and Fiscal Review *Education *Health *Veterans Affairs *Food and Agriculture (Vice Chair) *Human Services (Vice Chair)http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Abel_Maldonado 2006 run for State Controller In 2005, Maldonado declared his candidacy for the office of California State Controller after Controller Steve Westly decided to run for Governor. Maldonado was defeated in the June 6, 2006 Republican primary by Tony Strickland.Election results June 2006 Following his loss, Maldonado publicly criticized Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for not supporting his campaign more forcefully, suggesting that Schwarzenegger doesn't care about Hispanics, when he told the Los Angeles Times that "when Schwarzenegger needs Latinos, Latinos are always there for him. When Latinos need him, the answer's been no." Maldonado issued a public apology for the comment. Maldonado also maintains that he is no longer running for any further political offices. Lieutenant Governor Nomination On the November 23, 2009, episode of The Jay Leno Show, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he was nominating Maldonado as Lieutenant Governor. Schwarzenegger cited Maldonado's "bipartisanship and postpartisanship...He makes decisions based on what's best for the people rather than what's best for the party. He has helped us, many times, pass a budget, which was very important. And he comes from an immigrant family..." Maldonado needed to be confirmed by a majority vote of the State Senate and a majority vote of the State Assembly within 90 days of the nomination in order to take office as Lieutenant Governor. In a statement released by the Governor's office, Schwarzenegger called Maldonado a "true partner" and cited his willingness "to reach across the partisan divide" and "commitment to creating a transparent, accountable government" in California. On February 11, 2010, Maldonado was confirmed as Lieutenant Governor by the state senate. However, his nomination was not approved by the State Assembly. Needing 41 votes (in the 80 seat assembly) for confirmation in the lower chamber, he received 37 votes in favor, with 35 votes against. Based upon the vote in the Legislature, Governor Schwarzenegger considered having Maldonado sworn into office, which may have set up a legal battle with Democrats. Instead, Schwarzenegger resubmitted the nomination of Maldonado on February 17. Maldonado received confirmation from the Assembly on April 22, 2010 by a 53-21 vote and from the Senate on April 26, 2010 by a 25-7 vote. He was sworn into office as the Lieutenant Governor on April 27, 2010. 2010 election He ran for the Republican nomination for the office in June and won it with 43.4% of the vote. Maldonado was defeated on November 2, 2010 by Democratic San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. 2012 run for congress In 2011, Maldonado announced his intention to challenge U.S. Congresswoman Lois Capps, a Democrat, for her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2012 elections. References External links *Official Lieutenant Governor website *Official campaign website Category:1967 births Category:Living people Category:American politicians of Mexican descent Category:California Republicans Category:California State Senators Category:Candidates in United States elections, 2006 Category:Candidates in United States elections, 2010 Category:Lieutenant Governors of California Category:Members of the California State Assembly Category:People from Santa Maria, California Category:California city council members Category:California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo alumni fi:Abel Maldonado